Arafat admits mistakes made by official within the Palestinian Authority

RAMALLAH, August 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As the Palestinian President admitted mistakes made by "some corrupt officials" in the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian MPs urged Arafat to translate his promises into actions, news reports said Wednesday, August 18.

"Some unacceptable mistakes have been made by our institutions and some have abused their positions and violated the trust that has been placed in them," Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted Arafat as addressing the Palestinian parliament.

In a keynote speech to the members of the Palestinian parliament, the 76-year  old Palestinian leader said the Palestinian authority did not exert enough efforts to enforce law and order in the Palestinian territories, pledging to take some actions to control the situation.

"No real efforts have been made to enforce law and order."

"More efforts and support should be made for the security of the people and this is the responsibility of the security organizations," he added.

"Full support"

The veteran leader also voiced support for the Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei to help him tackle the security chaos in the Palestinian territories.

"I support my brother Abu Alaa (Qorei) and I give him my full support to implement this."

Arafat has come under fire from different parties on the international arena and the Palestinian scene pushing him to lighten his grip over the security services and entrusting his prime minister with more powers to control the state of insecurity in the Palestinian territories.

The Palestinian leader also accused the Israeli government of doing every thing possible to destroy the Palestinian Authority.

"Israel has not stopped for a minute its campaign to end our Palestinian National Authority but this will all be in vain," AFP said, quoting Arafat.

Arafat lashed out at the Israeli construction of the separation wall which cuts through vast swatches of the Palestinian lands, saying it kills all potentials of establishing the independent Palestinian state.

The Israeli separation wall has resulted in the confiscation of 11,4000 dunums (2,850 acres - 1,140 hectares) of privately-owned Palestinian land and in the destruction of 102,320 trees, according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

It estimated that with the competition of the wall, 30 percent of the West Bank population, or some 680,000 people, will be "directly harmed."

Urged To Take Action

For their part, the Palestinian parliament members called on Arafat to take some solid steps to translate his promises into actions.

"This speech has very important headlines and we thank Arafat for it, but all the Palestinian institutions could not implement anything without Arafat's signature," said parliament speaker Rawhi Fattuh.

"For that, we need from you some formal decisions with your signature about issues you raised in the speech," he told Arafat. 

Other members said it was very important to have Arafat fulfill his promises on granting the Palestinian Premier Qorie with real powers to improve the security situation in the Palestinian territories.

"It is not enough for Arafat to support Ahmed Qorei's cabinet -- he must give him all the authority according to the law," Azmi Shouaibi, an independent member of parliament and a member of the parliamentary committee told AFP.

Hassan Khreishe, deputy head of the PLC said without taking actions by the Palestinian leader, nothing will change on the ground.

"The speech is just talk," AFP reported.

"Now the issue has to be proper implementation and without any formal decision (from Arafat), nothing will change," he said, expressing doubt that anything concrete would be achieved at the evening meeting.

"There will not be any decisions signed off tonight."

After a worrying security chaos that swept the Gaza Strip this month, Arafat overhauled the Palestinian security system, cutting its eight services to three: police, public security and intelligence.

The tragedy culminated in Qorei’s resignation, which was rejected by Arafat.